Shelemiah

Shelemiah (meaning: whom Jehovah repays or Jehovah is recompense) is the name of numerous individuals in the Old Testament, clustered especially in the prophetic and restoration periods. Among the most significant are: a man whose son Hananiah repaired part of Jerusalem's wall under Nehemiah (Nehemiah 3:30); the father of Jehucal, one of the officials sent by King Zedekiah to the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 37:3); and the father of Irijah, the officer who arrested Jeremiah as he tried to leave Jerusalem (Jeremiah 37:13).

Others include: one of the officials who had Baruch's scroll read in the temple chamber (Jeremiah 36:14); a son of Cushi whose son Nethaniah read Jeremiah's scroll before the princes (Jeremiah 36:14); an official who threw Jeremiah into the cistern on the charge of demoralizing the people (Jeremiah 38:1); and several who had married foreign wives and agreed to put them away (Ezra 10:39, 41). The name's frequency in the prophetic era may reflect the pious hope for divine restoration that accompanied the Babylonian crisis.